


Rudy Night

by marysutherland



Category: Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers, Sherlock (TV)
Genre: 221B Ficlet, Book: Gaudy Night, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-24
Updated: 2014-03-24
Packaged: 2018-01-16 20:55:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1361479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marysutherland/pseuds/marysutherland
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"The siren call of old habits. How very like Uncle Rudy – though, in many ways, cross-dressing would have been a wiser path for you." - Mycroft Holmes, <i>His Last Vow</i>.</p>
<p>In which Uncle Rudy's exploits in Oxford lead to an important encounter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rudy Night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fengirl88](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fengirl88/gifts).



_Oxford, Hilary Term 1965_

Shrewsbury College currently had at least a hundred students who thought wearing a mini-skirt in Oxford in early February was a good idea. It also had notoriously climbable walls. Which meant that when Marie Scott, needing inspiration, wandered through the college gardens well after midnight, she couldn't invariably rely on being alone with her equations. All too often, there was someone trying to get either in or out after hours, whose fun she had to spoil.

Tonight – this morning – was different though, not least because the miscreant inadvertently started their descent almost on top of her. The climber was in high heels, not for the first time, but Shrewsbury's students rarely had quite such sturdy calves, and even their rowers weren't that tall. Some stupid male in drag trying to get in and cause a scandal; Marie wasn't having that.

She yelled at him, and grabbed his ankle, but after a panic-stricken look down at her, he wriggled free and scrambled back up and over the wall, leaving her clutching one black suede slingback shoe, size eleven. Best to keep quiet and trust that the man had been scared off, she decided. If she raised the matter in the SCR, she'd just get tedious diatribes about how much better behaved Oxford undergraduates had been in the long-ago days of Dr Baring.

***

Next evening, just before Hall, Young Padgett called to her as she went past the Porters' Lodge:

"Miss Scott, could you spare a minute?"

There was a stranger standing rather apologetically next to Padgett in the Lodge. Dressed too neatly to be a don, but a little old to be a student: a professional man, probably.

"This _gentleman_ ," Padgett announced sceptically, "says you accidentally went off with his coat after a party last week. Couldn't remember your name, just your college and that you was a young, blonde don."

"You said you were late and rushed off," the man said, looking at her hopefully. Nice eyes, she couldn't help noticing. "Bit of a _Cinderella_ situation, really."

Oh God, _no_. The idiot from last night. She led him hastily away from Padgett's observant gaze.

"You're welcome to have the sandal back," she told him. "I certainly don't want it." Though he looked shorter in the daylight and did he really have size eleven feet? "Or perhaps I should ask you to try it on first, see if it fits."

"It's not mine," he said, "And I must apologise profusely for yesterday's events. I try to keep an eye on Rudy, but he gets these funny moods. My name's Arthur Holmes, by the way. And Rudy, who has certain _problems_ , is my brother."


End file.
